Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter (play) - Production

Production

George Axelrod's phenomenal success with the Broadway production of The Seven Year Itch had made him an overnight celebrity, a phenomenon he explored in his 1953 'comedy documentary' Confessions of a Nervous Man, which was broadcast as part of the CBS-TV anthology series Studio One, with Art Carney playing him. According to Axelrod's script, he was afraid to write a second play because its failure would make him an overnight has-been.

But the Billy Wilder-directed film version of The Seven Year Itch had been so heavily rewritten in order to meet the standards of the Hollywood Production Code that Axelrod was inspired to write another play about an author's refusal to bow to Hollywood's low standards. Axelrod used the character of George MacCauley to illustrate the way many writers succumb to the lure of high pay and celebrity, while others like Michael Freeman (Axelrod's alter ego) remain true to themselves. Twentieth Century-Fox, the same studio that had altered his first play, then bought the film rights to Rock Hunter and threw out his entire story and all but one of his characters.

Axelrod had originally intended to call his play Will Success Spoil Rock Hudson? but Hudson's agent, Henry Willson, threatened a law suit. After the play opened, Axelrod was vacationing in Jamaica and ran into Rock Hudson and his new wife, Phyllis Gates, on their honeymoon. The three became friends and, when the Hudsons returned to New York, they attended a performance of the show at which Hudson's name was substituted for the fictitious Rock Hunter.

After a year in Hollywood, Jayne Mansfield had played only bit parts in four movies when her agent arranged for her to audition for the role of Rita Marlowe, an all-too-obvious send-up of Marilyn Monroe. Her 40"-21"-35½" measurements and her one-of-a-kind comic twist on the dumb blonde stereotype quickly won her the role, and by opening night she found herself a fully fledged Broadway star, courted by many of the Hollywood studios that had previously ignored her.

In February 1956, Orson Bean broke his arm in the fight scene with William Thourlby and returned to the role with a cast on his arm. When the play moved from the Belasco Theatre to the more centrally located Shubert Theatre on 9 July, Tom Poston took over Bean's role.

Carol Grace, who had twice married and divorced playwright William Saroyan, played Miss Logan ('A Secretary') in the Broadway production and understudied Jayne Mansfield. In August 1959 she would marry her Rock Hunter co-star Walter Matthau. Tina Louise, who also understudied Mansfield, played the small role of 'A Swimmer', a part that was deleted from the published script. According to columnist Dorothy Kilgallen, "Jayne Mansfield, Tina Louise and Carol Saroyan are all imitating Marilyn Monroe, probably by direction. It gets a bit repetitious in that department."

Mamie Van Doren, who had turned down the Rita role for Broadway, turned it down again when the play subsequently reached the West Coast. Rita was played instead by Merry Anders and the production opened at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles on 21 May 1956. The play was popular on tour too; Roxanne Arlen, for example, played Rita in several US cities in 1956/57.